As it is the last week of 2020, I thought it was high time I catch up on some lifestyle and family posts from recent months that I have been meaning to write! It feels like a fitting way to close out my blog posts for the year. Yesterday’s post on Rowan’s second Christmas kicked off the week. Today, I’m sharing Rowan’s apple of my eye themed first birthday party including all the special touches and items I used to embrace the theme. This week, I’ll also be sharing Rowan’s baptism, our 4th wedding anniversary trip to Santa Fe, and our New England fall road trip through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. Next week, I’ll be back to sharing a mix of content and promise it won’t be so heavy on the family front!
Rowan’s birthday is September 23rd so his birthday kicks off the beginning of fall and Libra season! I really wanted to mark his special day with a fun little birthday party that was memorable and sweet but also low-key and not over the top. Since his birthday falls in the first few days of fall, I wanted to embrace that with the theme! I was chatting about it with my bestie, Allison, one day and she said “What about an apple of my eye theme!?” I instantly loved it and ran with the idea. As such, Rowan’s apple of my eye themed first birthday party idea was born!
Rowan’s Apple Of My Eye Themed First Birthday
Rowan’s apple of my eye themed party was so adorable and fitting for an autumn birthday party. However, the phrase “apple of my eye” is precious always so I think the theme could be done for childrens birthday parties all year around. Below is everything I did and used to make his first birthday party special and on theme…
To set the tone of the party,
I tapped my girlfriend Ashley of Ashley D Studio to design his birthday party invitation (as seen above. P.S. I whited out the address on the invite for this post but that is what filled the large white space on the invite.). She did the most sensation job and created the sweetest little apple invite for Rowan! It exceeded all my expectations and made me so happy! I mean have you ever seen a cuter first birthday invite? Thank you Ashley!
For the food, I used Charleston local cake baker extraordinaire ABCD Ashley Brown Cake Design to bake Rowan’s first birthday cake and his smash cake.
She is so talented and took the invite for Rowan’s party and used it as inspiration to design his cake. I love how they match and couldn’t have been more obsessed with the cake if I tried! The cake itself was delicious too… Ashley baked an apple cake with cinnamon frosting. It was so special and scrumptious!
I also used Charleston Coastal Charcuterie to make two huge incredible charcuterie boards for the party.
She jumped all over the theme and included lots of little special details like loading the boards with apple slices and cutting cheeses into the shapes of apples and 1’s for his age. Kelsey was so great to work with made such divine charcuterie boards – far beyond anything I could have created on my own!
As party favors, I had Sunday Farm Shop make personal apple butters for all the guests!
The founder of Sunday Farm Shop, Eneida, now lives in Miami but she used to live in Charleston, which is how I discovered her. She is incredible in the kitchen and her apple butter has been a favorite of mine since I first tried it in the fall of 2020. I was so excited she could get a large order to me in Charleston from Florida because they were the most delectable little party favors.
For the decor,
I didn’t go too overboard but I did order this adorable first birthday apple banner to hang inside over the food and then outside behind his high chair during his cake and the signing of Happy Birthday. My mom also had the brilliant idea of ordering a bunch of these stuffed apples to fill a huge basket with outside to entertain all the kiddos with. The apple basket is still a favorite of Rowan’s when he’s at my parents’ house! The littles tossed all the apples around and were highly entertain by them! We also used some of my mom’s apple Weston Table items like her pitchers (here and here) and beautiful Heather Taylor Home gingham tablecloth. P.S. If we had served apple pie, I would have ordered this pie keeper!
I ordered Rowan’s way too cute apple outfit from The Bella Bean and layered it over a simple blue and white stripe tee. He seriously couldn’t have been cuter in it! I wore a beautiful dress from Beau & Ro that fit the color scheme of the party.
It was a perfect afternoon and so incredibly meaningful for Edwin and I as parents to celebrate our little Rowan Clarke’s first year of life. It was a big milestone for both Rowan and for us! I wonder what I’ll do next fall for his second birthday! xx
